The 10 Coolest Mercedes of All Time

With roots tracing back to 1886, Mercedes-Benz is the oldest living car company. That long history includes tons of automotive firsts, including the airbag, anti-lock braking system (ABS), and direct fuel injection. But those innovations would be a footnote if Mercedes-Benz didn’t sell enough cars to stay in business. (Rest in peace, Saab.) Both its strong heritage and current position as the largest luxury automaker in the world are owed in part to a past of speckled with noteworthy vehicles—the kind that denoted high status, were ahead of the times, dripped in beauty, were imbued with an unquantifiable specialness, or, in many cases, all of the above.

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10. E63 AMG Wagon (2014-present)
Car nerds love wagons, mainly because they’re not SUVs. But most of the car-buying public doesn’t care about wagons anymore, and that gives the autos a two-part coolness: rarity, and those in the know get to have a smug, they-don’t-know-what-they’re-missing attitude. In the hierarchy of wagons, there is none greater than the one from M-B’s performance arm, AMG. The vehicle only sells in the hundreds, in a good year. But it can beat a 911 Carrera S in a straight line, and yet the vast majority of the public doesn’t even know it exists. Behold, the hipster performance car.

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9. 600 Pullman (1963-1981)
If you took all the optimism of the early ’60’s and made it into a cost-no-object limousine, this is what you’d get. The Pullman, or “Grosser” version is 20 feet long, nearly 2 feet more than the largest Cadillac of the era. It cost more than a Rolls-Royce, but then again the Rolls didn’t have a self-leveling automatic suspension or self-closing doors.

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8. 500E (1991-1994)
Before Mercedes-Benz absorbed tuning shop AMG into the corporate fold and made a performance version of every model, they dropped the V-8 from the SL roadster under the hood of the ordinary-looking 300 sedan. Actually most of the development of this wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing was farmed out to Porsche, which only increases its coolness.

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7. SLS AMG (2010-2014)
The SLS has almost no trunk space and you won’t find any free space in the interior either. You have to climb out of your seat to close the gullwing doors. There is a reason for the Nimitz-class hood (the engine sits behind the front axle), but otherwise the SLS is a rolling tribute to form over function. Did we mention the impractical gullwing doors?

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6. 300 SEL 6.3 (1968-1972)
In an even earlier example of hot-rod brilliance, Mercedes-Benz engineers put the big engine from the 600 into the 300 sedan. It was the first five-passenger car that could cruise at 124 mph on the autobahn, and it’s also the reason why so many AMG models carry the “63” moniker today.

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5. G-class (1979-present)
Legend has it that the original Geländewagon was developed for the Shah of Iran as a truck for his country’s military. After the 1979 revolution, however, the Shah wasn’t really in a position to buy them by the thousands. Instead, the company put a civilian version on sale. Thirty-five years later the truck remains largely unchanged, although several updates have added niceties such as leather seats and newer engines.

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4. SL (1971-1989)
Like the G-wagen, this version of the SL (known by its internal code, R107) was long-lived. The production run spans two decades and speaks to the timelessness of the R107’s design. Motorheads are beginning to notice as well, as prices of used SLs of this vintage are starting to skyrocket.

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3. 450SEL 6.9 (1975-1981)
The 450SEL 6.9 is the king of big Benzes. In the movie Ronin, Robert DeNiro’s character took advantage of the hydraulic suspension’s smooth ride by shooting a rocket launcher from the sunroof. In more realistic matters, the giant V-8 made 286 horsepower, good for a top speed of 140 miles per hour. (The Chevy Corvette, by comparison, had 190 hp in 1981.)

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2. 540 K Special Roadster (1936-1944)
The 540 K represents the peak of the Mercedes-Benz before (and during) World War II and, to some, the most beautiful car of the era. In the case of the Special Roaster, it’s hard to argue. The only one I’ve ever seen in person, at a Pebble Beach auction (it sold for $11.8 million), was so enchanting I spent hours just staring at it.

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1. 300SL Coupe (1954-1963)
The 300SL Coupe was based on a nearly identical racecar, and when the production version of the Gullwing came out, it was the fastest road car in the world with a top speed of 159 miles per hour. More than anything else though, the 300SL’s distinctive styling and doors make it an unparalleled icon of coolness.